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Food for People, Inc. is located in Humboldt County, located 350 miles north of San Francisco. The county covers 3572 square miles with only 35.4 people per square mile. The bulk of the population is concentrated in 4 towns and municipalities. Public transportation services are limited and generally run along the Highway 101 corridor. Humboldt County is ranked high in the state for its incidence of hunger and food insecurity. According to 2000 census data, Humboldt County has a population of about 126,518 people and a poverty rate of 19.5%. 6,618 or 23.2% of children under the age of 18 live at or below the federal poverty level. The county’s children also suffer from anemia at a rate of 18.2% which is 4% higher than the state average. Of the 69 public schools in Humboldt County, 39 qualify as “low resource” schools in which 50% or more of the children qualify for free/reduced breakfast and lunch programs. This means that 6,166 low income kids are receiving a nutritious breakfast and/or lunch at school every day. These numbers drop precipitously when it comes to summer meals.

Food for People, Inc. provides emergency and supplementary food to over 900 families a month, distributing almost 2 million pounds of food a year. Working to improve access to food with innovative ideas Food for People participates in gleaning and gardening projects and supports advocacy and outreach for local, state and federal food assistance programs. Encouraging self-sufficiency in low-income households and the community as a whole, Food for People serves as the official food bank for Humboldt County.

Food for People saw the void this created for growing children and stepped forward in 1997 as a nonprofit sponsor of the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The food bank witnessed the impact on low income families struggling to provide the extra meals for their children over the summer months and felt that something needed to be done to help children return to school ready to learn.